[CHESS] FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2022

[KTChampions]

never heard about Aronian before so I went to check
seems like Levon Grigori Aronian is an Armenian chess master

here's his wikipedia page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levon_Aronian

he had the number 2 position in 2014 on FIDE ranking
quite impressive

It's strange that you haven't heard about him - he is consistently included in the top group of grandmasters who play at the most prestigious tournaments and always receive invitations there, you can say that his career runs parallel to Carlsen's.
I don't know much about new stars like Gukesh, Pragnanda, etc. but one of them will probably be able to first surpass Firuja, and then the current tops (simply due to age).

[South Park]

Today the first round of the heavily occupied tournament in Wijk Aan Zee started. Carlsen - Aronian has now ended in a fairly boring draw. But we often see such results in these tournaments, and we will see a lot of draws in this round. There are not that many boards in the strongest group where a color is much better. Carlsen has already said he will not make any statements in relation to accusing Hans Niemann of cheating. Who is not present at this tournament. Maybe for the best, I think Carlsen wouldn't play otherwise and probably other players wouldn't either. The Niemann case is far from over and will continue. He also filed a $100 million claim.

I was unaware that Niemann had taken Carlsen and chess.com to court, and while lawyers can ask for whatever they want when they file for a lawsuit as the court does not really care, and in the case of winning they will assign an amount that is closer to the real damages Niemann could have suffered I still find this to be completely ridiculous, while it seems Niemann may not have cheated in the infamous game against Carlsen, the chess.com report found that Niemann most likely cheated on more than 100 online games, so the description made of him as a cheater even if painful for him seems to be accurate.

[Lucasgabd]

<..>

It's strange that you haven't heard about him - he is consistently included in the top group of grandmasters who play at the most prestigious tournaments and always receive invitations there, you can say that his career runs parallel to Carlsen's.
I don't know much about new stars like Gukesh, Pragnanda, etc. but one of them will probably be able to first surpass Firuja, and then the current tops (simply due to age).

maybe I've seen his name before and forgot about it
I like chess but not the biggest fan, I don't usually keep up with GMs games
it's something I should probably look more into to up my game as well

[qwertyup23]

Have you guys been watching the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023? Yesterday, Magnus Carlsen has lost a game of classical chess (which is vey rare as he usually draws games with the black pieces) against Anish Giri. Anish has been playing outstanding in this tournament, even defeating Gukesh in which I consider one of his immortal games when he sacrificed majority of his pieces to have an attack.

What do you guys think of this tournament? Will Magnus be able to reach that coveted 2900 rating anytime soon or is it something that is impossible to obtain given the current rankings and standings of the players?

[Lucasgabd]

Have you guys been watching the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023? Yesterday, Magnus Carlsen has lost a game of classical chess (which is vey rare as he usually draws games with the black pieces) against Anish Giri. Anish has been playing outstanding in this tournament, even defeating Gukesh in which I consider one of his immortal games when he sacrificed majority of his pieces to have an attack.

What do you guys think of this tournament? Will Magnus be able to reach that coveted 2900 rating anytime soon or is it something that is impossible to obtain given the current rankings and standings of the players?

I haven't watched it so I went to search
this is the official website for the tournament
https://tatasteelchess.com/

and here you can check the game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=galDrRcXCY0

can anyone confirm if this is a legit video?
does the tournament publishes the PGNs of games afterwards?

[BitcoinAccepted]

Carlsen is clearly not doing well this tournament. The match he won against jet talent from Germany Keymer was still of a high level, but against Giri he took quite a beating. Incidentally, you should not underestimate Giri, who has been among the best 10 players in the world for years and years, so on a bad day you can easily lose to it. We shouldn't write Carlsen off right away. He has 2 out of 4 but this tournament is very long, 13 rounds in total. De Uzbeek has mixed in the world top in a year and is now shared at the top with Caruana and Giri. Today the gentlemen had a rest day, tomorrow they can go again. Carlsen will really have to win to start his catch-up race. I can see Carlsen eventually becoming first, he is normally so much better than the rest and has also won this tournament several times.

[Lucasgabd]

Carlsen is clearly not doing well this tournament. The match he won against jet talent from Germany Keymer was still of a high level, but against Giri he took quite a beating. Incidentally, you should not underestimate Giri, who has been among the best 10 players in the world for years and years, so on a bad day you can easily lose to it. We shouldn't write Carlsen off right away. He has 2 out of 4 but this tournament is very long, 13 rounds in total. De Uzbeek has mixed in the world top in a year and is now shared at the top with Caruana and Giri. Today the gentlemen had a rest day, tomorrow they can go again. Carlsen will really have to win to start his catch-up race. I can see Carlsen eventually becoming first, he is normally so much better than the rest and has also won this tournament several times.

maybe taking so long off made him go a bit out of shape
I don't know
anyways it's normal to have fluctuations along the career, we're not performing our best everyday for years to come, life comes in weaves

[dothebeats]

Carlsen is clearly not doing well this tournament. The match he won against jet talent from Germany Keymer was still of a high level, but against Giri he took quite a beating. Incidentally, you should not underestimate Giri, who has been among the best 10 players in the world for years and years, so on a bad day you can easily lose to it. We shouldn't write Carlsen off right away. He has 2 out of 4 but this tournament is very long, 13 rounds in total. De Uzbeek has mixed in the world top in a year and is now shared at the top with Caruana and Giri. Today the gentlemen had a rest day, tomorrow they can go again. Carlsen will really have to win to start his catch-up race. I can see Carlsen eventually becoming first, he is normally so much better than the rest and has also won this tournament several times.

Anish Giri is easily one of the world's current top 10 in chess, although him winning against Carlsen in a classical match is literally unheard of for the past decade. This win may either mean that Carlsen is somewhat not focused or Giri just prepared extremely for this tournament. Even GM Ding Liren got his lost against Pragnanandhaa in a classical match. Imagine a 2684 elo GM beating a 2811 elo grandmaster in chess IN A CLASSICAL MATCH, IN A TOURNAMENT? That's not something you see every time.

But as always, Carlsen will claw back in this tournament and win this. This is classical chess, and he's ranked number 1 in it for all the valid reasons.

[Casdinyard]

Today the first round of the heavily occupied tournament in Wijk Aan Zee started. Carlsen - Aronian has now ended in a fairly boring draw. But we often see such results in these tournaments, and we will see a lot of draws in this round. There are not that many boards in the strongest group where a color is much better. Carlsen has already said he will not make any statements in relation to accusing Hans Niemann of cheating. Who is not present at this tournament. Maybe for the best, I think Carlsen wouldn't play otherwise and probably other players wouldn't either. The Niemann case is far from over and will continue. He also filed a $100 million claim.

I was unaware that Niemann had taken Carlsen and chess.com to court, and while lawyers can ask for whatever they want when they file for a lawsuit as the court does not really care, and in the case of winning they will assign an amount that is closer to the real damages Niemann could have suffered I still find this to be completely ridiculous, while it seems Niemann may not have cheated in the infamous game against Carlsen, the chess.com report found that Niemann most likely cheated on more than 100 online games, so the description made of him as a cheater even if painful for him seems to be accurate.

I don't understand why Niemann could sue Carlsen, as far as I know he didn't say anything that is greatly damaging to Niemann's image, only a cryptic tweet and a resignation on move 1. Niemann is acting out of defense here lmao, so much that he looks and sounds as if he's really guilty and is trying to pin the blame on the Carlsen and a harmless website who just happened to see that his moves are a little too computer-like. I don't know where this case will end up to but suing chess.com and Carlsen isn't really going to help with his reputation within the chess community. He's gonna be known for being the man with the beads up his ass until the heat death of the universe.

[KTChampions]

Anish Giri is easily one of the world's current top 10 in chess, although him winning against Carlsen in a classical match is literally unheard of for the past decade. This win may either mean that Carlsen is somewhat not focused or Giri just prepared extremely for this tournament. Even GM Ding Liren got his lost against Pragnanandhaa in a classical match. Imagine a 2684 elo GM beating a 2811 elo grandmaster in chess IN A CLASSICAL MATCH, IN A TOURNAMENT? That's not something you see every time.

But as always, Carlsen will claw back in this tournament and win this. This is classical chess, and he's ranked number 1 in it for all the valid reasons.

Ding Liren's defeat is probably even more surprising than Carlsen's defeat - after all, Carlsen gave up the chess crown, and Ding Liren will take part in the match for it. I think no matter how much Carlsen deceives himself that by giving up the crown he will be able to continue to dominate as he used to in regular tournaments, this is not true. When an athlete loses motivation, it affects the results in all tournaments. Perhaps Carlsen is already on his way out of the top 1.

[dothebeats]

Anish Giri is easily one of the world's current top 10 in chess, although him winning against Carlsen in a classical match is literally unheard of for the past decade. This win may either mean that Carlsen is somewhat not focused or Giri just prepared extremely for this tournament. Even GM Ding Liren got his lost against Pragnanandhaa in a classical match. Imagine a 2684 elo GM beating a 2811 elo grandmaster in chess IN A CLASSICAL MATCH, IN A TOURNAMENT? That's not something you see every time.

But as always, Carlsen will claw back in this tournament and win this. This is classical chess, and he's ranked number 1 in it for all the valid reasons.

Ding Liren's defeat is probably even more surprising than Carlsen's defeat - after all, Carlsen gave up the chess crown, and Ding Liren will take part in the match for it. I think no matter how much Carlsen deceives himself that by giving up the crown he will be able to continue to dominate as he used to in regular tournaments, this is not true. When an athlete loses motivation, it affects the results in all tournaments. Perhaps Carlsen is already on his way out of the top 1.

And what a way to end it, if ever. It would be best if he gets that 2900 rating first before he calls it quits. He's still got a lot of time ahead of him, and he's obviously getting even better as time passes. Sadly, if you stay too long at the top and can't meet someone who's worthy of being serious, you'll eventually lose the drive to continue doing what you do best and I guess that's what's happening with Magnus now. But yeah, I'm still hoping that he reaches the elusive 2900 before he quits chess for good, otherwise it will be a long climb for Ding Liren before he gets that rating.

[BitcoinAccepted]

Clearly not Carlsen's tournament. You have a tournament like this once a year. It is a pity that this is now the same at the most prestigious tournament. But Carlsen has won this tournament several times in the past. I remember you need a score of around 10 out of 13 to win the tournament. Carlsen has 2 out of 5, so he will have to get at least 7.5 points from the remaining 8 games to win the tournament. I would bet my money on the player from Uzbekistan, who also became world champion in speed chess last year. Came up at once. I have no idea why Carlsen is playing this tournament so badly. Maybe a dip.

[KTChampions]

Ding Liren's defeat is probably even more surprising than Carlsen's defeat - after all, Carlsen gave up the chess crown, and Ding Liren will take part in the match for it. I think no matter how much Carlsen deceives himself that by giving up the crown he will be able to continue to dominate as he used to in regular tournaments, this is not true. When an athlete loses motivation, it affects the results in all tournaments. Perhaps Carlsen is already on his way out of the top 1.

And what a way to end it, if ever. It would be best if he gets that 2900 rating first before he calls it quits. He's still got a lot of time ahead of him, and he's obviously getting even better as time passes. Sadly, if you stay too long at the top and can't meet someone who's worthy of being serious, you'll eventually lose the drive to continue doing what you do best and I guess that's what's happening with Magnus now. But yeah, I'm still hoping that he reaches the elusive 2900 before he quits chess for good, otherwise it will be a long climb for Ding Liren before he gets that rating.

Considering that only two chess players currently have ratings above 2800 (one of which is Carlsen himself), the task of scoring 2900 looks unrealistic. Even when he announced this goal of his, some grandmasters said that it was impossible. Since then, it seems that Carlsen did not play better, but vice versa. I think that this task will be submitted to the next generation of players, including Firuja, Gukesh, Eregaysi, etc. simply due to inflation (albeit slow) rating.

[Zackgeno96]

Ding Liren's defeat is probably even more surprising than Carlsen's defeat - after all, Carlsen gave up the chess crown, and Ding Liren will take part in the match for it. I think no matter how much Carlsen deceives himself that by giving up the crown he will be able to continue to dominate as he used to in regular tournaments, this is not true. When an athlete loses motivation, it affects the results in all tournaments. Perhaps Carlsen is already on his way out of the top 1.

And what a way to end it, if ever. It would be best if he gets that 2900 rating first before he calls it quits. He's still got a lot of time ahead of him, and he's obviously getting even better as time passes. Sadly, if you stay too long at the top and can't meet someone who's worthy of being serious, you'll eventually lose the drive to continue doing what you do best and I guess that's what's happening with Magnus now. But yeah, I'm still hoping that he reaches the elusive 2900 before he quits chess for good, otherwise it will be a long climb for Ding Liren before he gets that rating.

Considering that only two chess players currently have ratings above 2800 (one of which is Carlsen himself), the task of scoring 2900 looks unrealistic. Even when he announced this goal of his, some grandmasters said that it was impossible. Since then, it seems that Carlsen did not play better, but vice versa. I think that this task will be submitted to the next generation of players, including Firuja, Gukesh, Eregaysi, etc. simply due to inflation (albeit slow) rating.

2900 may be a rating that man will never reach. If he plays a bad tournament, he has to win 2 tournaments somewhere to compensate for the lost points. I think Kasparov had a rating of 2854 at his best ever. Carlsen once hit 2900. Maybe this whole Niemann thing has started to piss him off after all. That is something that is in the back of your mind and people everywhere naturally want to ask questions about it. It makes a difference that Niemann was not invited. Ding Liren is also a player above the 2800 rating, but at the moment he has not been able to show anything spectacular. Carlsen will have to show why he is the world champion and will have to win a few games in a row. However, this tournament is heavily occupied, so there are no easy victories here.

[Lucasgabd]

Ding Liren's defeat is probably even more surprising than Carlsen's defeat - after all, Carlsen gave up the chess crown, and Ding Liren will take part in the match for it. I think no matter how much Carlsen deceives himself that by giving up the crown he will be able to continue to dominate as he used to in regular tournaments, this is not true. When an athlete loses motivation, it affects the results in all tournaments. Perhaps Carlsen is already on his way out of the top 1.

And what a way to end it, if ever. It would be best if he gets that 2900 rating first before he calls it quits. He's still got a lot of time ahead of him, and he's obviously getting even better as time passes. Sadly, if you stay too long at the top and can't meet someone who's worthy of being serious, you'll eventually lose the drive to continue doing what you do best and I guess that's what's happening with Magnus now. But yeah, I'm still hoping that he reaches the elusive 2900 before he quits chess for good, otherwise it will be a long climb for Ding Liren before he gets that rating.

Considering that only two chess players currently have ratings above 2800 (one of which is Carlsen himself), the task of scoring 2900 looks unrealistic. Even when he announced this goal of his, some grandmasters said that it was impossible. Since then, it seems that Carlsen did not play better, but vice versa. I think that this task will be submitted to the next generation of players, including Firuja, Gukesh, Eregaysi, etc. simply due to inflation (albeit slow) rating.

can you talk a bit more about inflation rating? first time I hear about it
I didn't know the top rating would simply go up over time and doesn't make a lot of sense for me to think it's due to people artificially raising it, but due to GMs getting better and better over time, maybe?

[Zackgeno96]

A pretty boring day today. Played an awful lot of draws, which is not uncommon. Carlsen couldn't achieve much with black against van Foreest and so the gap to the leader remains large. I wouldn't dare say who the absolute favorite is, since this field is so strong that everyone can win and lose against each other. Good preparation is half the work. There were also rumors that Firouzja would not participate because he could not agree on the negotiation of his participation money in the tournament. It's strange, as a chess player you want to keep playing against the absolute world top, don't you? Not participating due to a refusal of starting money can also damage your reputation.

[KTChampions]

Considering that only two chess players currently have ratings above 2800 (one of which is Carlsen himself), the task of scoring 2900 looks unrealistic. Even when he announced this goal of his, some grandmasters said that it was impossible. Since then, it seems that Carlsen did not play better, but vice versa. I think that this task will be submitted to the next generation of players, including Firuja, Gukesh, Eregaysi, etc. simply due to inflation (albeit slow) rating.

2900 may be a rating that man will never reach. If he plays a bad tournament, he has to win 2 tournaments somewhere to compensate for the lost points. I think Kasparov had a rating of 2854 at his best ever. Carlsen once hit 2900. Maybe this whole Niemann thing has started to piss him off after all. That is something that is in the back of your mind and people everywhere naturally want to ask questions about it. It makes a difference that Niemann was not invited. Ding Liren is also a player above the 2800 rating, but at the moment he has not been able to show anything spectacular. Carlsen will have to show why he is the world champion and will have to win a few games in a row. However, this tournament is heavily occupied, so there are no easy victories here.

It doesn't work that way. The FIDE rating is based on the ELO principle and there you have to not just win tournaments, but gain a certain percentage of points. That is (purely conditional percentages, I don't remember the exact numbers) player 2800 should win 70% of games against player 2600 and against player 2500 he should win 80% of games. So if he wants to climb 2900, Carlsen has to show a crazy win percentage against the rest of the tops.

can you talk a bit more about inflation rating? first time I hear about it
I didn't know the top rating would simply go up over time and doesn't make a lot of sense for me to think it's due to people artificially raising it, but due to GMs getting better and better over time, maybe?

Yes, on the one hand, you are right that the players are getting better and thus both the average rating and the top rating are growing. I won't be able to tell you much about inflation as it's a complicated issue (and many people even think it's the other way around in chess - rating deflation) - you can see the main points here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system#Ratings_inflation_and_deflation
But it's clear to me that new players who enter the system bring more points into the system than retired players take away, so the total (and average) number of points becomes more = inflation.

[BitcoinAccepted]

Carlsen won another game today. Player from Uzbekistan has won again and is now a full point ahead of the rest of the field. Wonder if Carlsen can bring back the tension a bit. With black he is vulnerable. I don't know if Carlsen's goal is to reach 2900. Perhaps it is not realistic to have that goal. Then he will have to get a big plus score at all tournaments. A bad tournament is actually disastrous. I have not followed the Challengers group, but that is also a few levels lower. Iran secretly now also has some strong chess players, although Firouzja recently switched countries?

[KTChampions]

Carlsen won another game today. Player from Uzbekistan has won again and is now a full point ahead of the rest of the field. Wonder if Carlsen can bring back the tension a bit. With black he is vulnerable. I don't know if Carlsen's goal is to reach 2900. Perhaps it is not realistic to have that goal. Then he will have to get a big plus score at all tournaments. A bad tournament is actually disastrous. I have not followed the Challengers group, but that is also a few levels lower. Iran secretly now also has some strong chess players, although Firouzja recently switched countries?

With two defeats in a row against not the strongest chess players, Carlsen's rating will drop after this tournament, no matter how far he plays.
There are always many strong chess players and female chess players in Iran. They run away from there with impressive regularity - if you search on Google, someone is constantly running away from there because of scandals with the hijab and other religious nonsense.

[BitcoinAccepted]

Carlsen has now recovered with 2 victories in a row. Especially today's victory shows that we shouldn't write Carlsen off. Difference with the leader is 1.5 points. A considerable gap, but in this tournament 13 rounds are played, so we are only just over halfway. Carlsen is a player who can still score 5 out of 6 in the last 6 games once he gets going. But of course he is no longer the favorite for the title. Whether he will lose a lot of points will depend on the 2nd tournament half. I read that he has already won this tournament about 8 times, that is really a lot. Perhaps more than Kasparov ever before in this tournament. It's a pity that man has stopped playing chess.